How to Help Protect Your Kids from Shopping Cart Injuries

When Sylvan Nathan Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937, it gave consumers the ability to easier buy more groceries at one time, as opposed to carrying a basket. He could never have dreamed that today, an estimated 24,000 kids are rushed to hospital emergency rooms annually because of cart-related injuries. Read this informative article and find out how to help protect your kids from shopping cart injuries!

1. Skip the Shopping Cart Ride
If your kids are old enough to walk instead of riding in the front of a cart, choose this option from time to time. Not only will it help reduce the risk of a trolley accident, but it will give your child some healthy exercise.

If your kids tend to wander off, ask an adult friend or family member to accompany you on your grocery shopping trips. That way, they can help watch the kids while you shop.

2. Choose Child-Safe "Vehicle" Carts Instead
Another way to help protect your kids from shopping cart injuries is to use Child-Safe "Vehicle" Carts whenever they are available. These grocery carts are basically covered with plastic bodies. The bodies resemble race cars, fire trucks, et cetera, so they appeal to kids. These trolleys are wider than normal carts and sit lower to the floor. Thus, they cannot tip over. Because of the low, deep seating, children are less likely to fall out too. Head and neck injuries from falling out of, or falling off of, shopping carts are the most common injuries.

3. Use the Safety Belts in Shopping Carts
Everytime you place your child in the seat of a shopping cart, using the seat belt provided is a wise idea. It will help ensure that your child can't lean too far over and fall out. Afterall, whose kid doesn't lean out trying to grab a product off a shelf?

4. Never Place Your Kid In the Basket Area
Children who are too big to sit in the seat are often lifted up and placed in the basket area of the shopping cart. Their weight can easily offset the balance of the cart, especially if they lean to one side, or worse, stand up! Bigger kids should walk along with their parents or caregivers. And, never allow your kids to stand up in a shopping trolley, no matter what part they are in!

Shopping Carts Are Naturally Unbalanced by Their Very Design

Credit: sanja gjenero

Copyright: sanja gjenero